SRKindredSpirits

This early-spring treat is one of a few perennial vegetable crops, so once you get a patch established, it will give you many years of delicious harvests for little work. Here's my little patch from last year: Asparagus are fresh, crisp, nutritious, and adaptable to use in many different ways. Asparagus are a good source of the following minerals & vitamins: Iodine, Potassium, Copper, Magnesium, Folate, and Vitamins A, C and E.  My favorite ways to eat it are -  Steamed with Eggs... Steam Asparagus on stove top... top with shredded or chopped hard boiled eggs and salt and pepper.  Oven Roasted... This has to be one of the easiest and tastiest ways to cook asparagus. Just trim the ends, lay out on a baking sheet, toss with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese, and then bake until done.  In a sandwich... We like to use a toasted and buttered bread or bagel. Add bacon, steamed asparagus and a fried egg! *Note: some p

 Crust Ingredients 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1-1/2 cups old-fashioned oats 1 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 cup chopped pecans 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup butter Filling Ingredients 3 cups fresh or frozen rhubarb 1/4 cups cold water 1 cups sugar 2 tbsp. strawberry jello granuels - 2 tablespoons flour 1/2 c. sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla  Directions In a large bowl, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, nuts, baking soda. Cut in butter until crumbly. Press 3 cups into an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish; set aside.  In a saucepan, combine sugar, water and rhubarb and jello. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 5 minutes. Combine 2 tbsp of flour and 1/2 c. sugar in seperate bowl and add to rhubarb mixture, stiring for 1 min. or until thickened. Add vanilla.  Spoon over crust; sprinkle with remaining crumb mixture.  Bake at 350° for 23-25 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve with ice cream if desired. 

The passion fruit is a  vigorous, climbing vine that clings by tendrils to almost any support. It can grow 15 to 20 ft. per year once established. The Story of the Passion Flower   I have this beautiful flower climbing on my arch that I walk under on the way to my office entrance. It is so intricate and beautiful, I thought I'd share a little about it with you all. Although it doesn't bloom until summer - it always reminds me of Easter. The Passion Flower (Passiflora) is a symbol of Christ’s Passion and Cross: including his scourging, crowning with thorns, three nails and five wounds. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish Christian missionaries adopted the unique physical structures of this plant, particularly the numbers of its various flower parts, as symbols of the last days of Jesus and especially his crucifixion.   The pointed tips of the leaves were taken to represent the Holy Lance that confirmed Christ’s death. The tendrils represent the whips u

"When it comes to education - there is no school like home!" We home school our kids....  In the past, we have used public school for kindergarten and have tried a couple christian schools, but in the end, it just works better for our family at this point in our life to home school.  Over the years, I have had experience using just about every curriculum out there.... Abeka , CLE, Pathway, ACE , Rod and Staff, and more, but I have found the best curriculum to be the one that is put together individually for each child. For the two youngest, we are currently using My Fathers World and love it! I'll try to do a post on that sometime! For high school, our oldest daughter is graduating this year with a Diploma from Penn Foster High School.  I graduated from Penn Foster back when it was a mail correspondence course and was known as ICS Newport Pacific High School/Harcourt High School. Some of the reasons that we love Penn Foster High School a

Over the last few years, I haven't taken good care of myself, and as a result, my health has taken a hit..... when you have a special needs kid, multiple auto immune diseases, cancer, and chronic stress, I guess its somewhat to be expected. But, since I've chosen to take care of myself this year , my health is a high priority. My 1st surgery was Monday, March 20th, 2017 "Surgery is the treatment of disease or injury by cutting into the body to repair or remove the injured or diseased body part". I was extremely nervous. I had never been put to sleep or had any type of surgery before in my life. The surgery went well, the worst things about it were the sore throat from the breathing tube, keeping my pain levels down, and the drive home (I do believe we have the worst roads in the US!).  I wasn't expecting the affects of anesthesia to make me have insomnia for the first three days. Or that doing simple household chores would make me tire s

It's no secret that most of my friends growing up were boys....  I have only had two extremely close girlfriends in my life.... Carla and Suzie - one when I was younger and one as a young adult, - the rest were all guys.  I'm not sure if I liked hanging out with the guys more than girls because I was a tomboy myself, or because most girls are just too much drama, and drama has always stressed me out!  While I could name off a whole list of guys that I considered my friends over the years... there have been three guys who not only were my best friends at the time, but whom I also loved.... I came across the following article the other day and while it may not be true for everyone, it is definitely true for me..... It’s been said that we really only fall in love with three people in our lifetime.  Often our first love (his name was Joshua and I really thought we'd be together forever!) is when we are young. It’s the idealistic love—the one that seems lik

NIV Investigator's Holy Bible by: Zondervan 5 Stars If you're looking for an NIV bible that is easy to understand and keeps kids interested... this is the one to get !  Have you ever used a magnifying glass? It makes everything bigger and easier to see, right? Detectives and scientists magnify things to understand them better. Well that’s just what this Bible does—it’s a magnifying glass to help children understand the Word of God better. The Bible is a gift from God, but many of the things written in the Bible are hard for kids to understand. In fact, sometimes they’re downright mysterious to kids. Using kid-friendly language and a detective theme, the two color NIV Investigator’s Holy Bible explains the Bible text for kids ages 6–10.  Two central mystery-solving characters invite children to investigate the Bible using the following features: Evidence—Bible book introductions answer what kind of book it is, who wrote it, what happens, and the “